For just over a year now, the Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been investigating the CCP’s actions and weighing their competitive threat with the need for America’s response. The bipartisan Select Committee, led by retiring Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI), has been largely successful at not only accomplishing this objective by providing strategic recommendations to counter China’s threats, but it’s also proven to be a model of success in how committee members work together. At a time when lawmakers overwhelmingly refuse to cooperate, we need to admire the Select Committee’s work and emulate that bipartisanship where we can in Congress.
From the get-go, the Select Committee began to hold hearings and conduct vital research on pressing issues concerning U.S./China relations. Whether developing policy recommendations to counter the CCP’s aggressive economic and competition agenda or outlining steps to address national security threats posed by land sales near U.S. military facilities, members have tackled some of our nation’s biggest grievances with China over the past decade, and rightfully so. A late-2023 Chicago Council Survey found that a record level of Americans – 58 percent – view China’s development as a critical threat to U.S. prosperity. These results show that Americans are more concerned about China today than at any other time since the end of the Cold War.
Recognizing this, Chairman Gallagher, Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), and their gang of Republican and Democrat colleagues have met many of the CCP’s aggressive measures with the legislative tenacity they deserve. Some major feathers in their caps include the FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which passed in a bipartisan manner and included many provisions that came from the committee and its Ten for Taiwan report. These national defense and security measures will help further the commonsense, bipartisan goals of advancing our national interests and strengthening our presence on the world stage.
This raises the question: What if Congress took all its assignments this seriously? The call to action is there. Americans are overwhelmingly concerned about political division and see the only way to heal the divide is by working together and compromising on issues that need to be solved. There are countless bills collecting dust in Congress and could use some sunlight if lawmakers would be as pragmatic as the Select Committee members were in legislating together.
Rep. Gallagher is set to depart the House any day now. While the loss of the leader will be significant for the Select Committee on the CCP, Gallagher will leave behind the legacy of effective bipartisan collaboration that lawmakers can apply to other national issues.
Regardless of individual support for the policies that came out of the Select Committee on the CCP, it is indisputable that the committee can serve as a model of success for policies that warrant serious bipartisan collaboration. As our legislature moves toward tackling other tough issues that will require bridging large gaps in schools of thought, every member of Congress should look to the work of this committee for an example of how to unite to overcome differences to serve national interests. Rep. Gallagher and the Select Committee on the CCP set a strong example of how to put the good of our country over politics to forge a path ahead.
Liam deClive-Lowe and Paolo Mastrangelo are the co-founders & co-presidents of American Policy Ventures, an organization that builds projects to help policymakers work together and get things done.
